Pope Francis

Last
week I wrote
about how Father Quigley, a priest at UMass, had taught me about Catholic
compassion and the possibility that Pope Francis’ demonstration of Catholic
compassion would present an opportunity for liberals to broaden their appeal to
Catholic voters. This week we learned that the Pope met with Kentucky County
Clerk Kim Davis, which has been taken by many as evidence that my political
hypothesis was naïve at best. While I admit that upon hearing the news of this
meeting I was genuinely disappointed, I quickly realized it was far from a “disaster”
and that holding the Pope to conventional public relations standards is absurd.
By visiting with Kim Davis Francis was indeed obeying Father Quigley’s moral
directive.

America’s first language is that of the market, reflected in
poll driven language mouthed by political figures. Our second language, the language
of spiritual morality, was evident in Pope Francis’s call for us to welcome
immigrants. Congressional applause for the pontiff’s speech had barely died
down when we returned to our first language.

Liberals want to claim Pope Francis for their issues and conservatives want to claim him as well. Some conservatives who are frustrated with the pope's positions on economics and the climate even call him a communist. Is Pope Francis a liberal, a conservative, or even a communist?